Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Apprenticeship in Education
- 2 The Board School Teacher, 1882–1892
- 3 The Schoolmaster
- 4 The London School Board, 1894–1897
- 5 President of the NUT
- 6 The London School Board, 1897–1900
- 7 Parliament, 1900–1902
- 8 The 1902 Education Act
- 9 The End of the London School Board
- 10 The Decline of the Unionist Government, 1903–1905
- 11 Outside and Inside the Government, 1905–1908
- 12 Financial Secretary to the Admiralty I: 1908–1914
- 13 Financial Secretary to the Admiralty II: 1914–1920
- 14 Minister of Labour
- 15 Exclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate section
12 - Financial Secretary to the Admiralty I: 1908–1914
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Apprenticeship in Education
- 2 The Board School Teacher, 1882–1892
- 3 The Schoolmaster
- 4 The London School Board, 1894–1897
- 5 President of the NUT
- 6 The London School Board, 1897–1900
- 7 Parliament, 1900–1902
- 8 The 1902 Education Act
- 9 The End of the London School Board
- 10 The Decline of the Unionist Government, 1903–1905
- 11 Outside and Inside the Government, 1905–1908
- 12 Financial Secretary to the Admiralty I: 1908–1914
- 13 Financial Secretary to the Admiralty II: 1914–1920
- 14 Minister of Labour
- 15 Exclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate section
Summary
When the Liberals returned to power in December 1905, Macnamara's political prospects were thought to be rosy. After two or three years, W. T. Stead forecast, the older veterans would retire, and having served his apprenticeship, he would attain Cabinet rank:
Dr Macnamara represents youth, energy, race, experience, character and ambition. He is like a machine made of gun metal, driven by a dynamo of inexhaustible energy. He is typical of the new generation. A self-made man promoted from the ranks for sheer merit, and destined to go far.
But when Asquith succeeded Campbell-Bannerman in April 1908, Macnamara, because of his refusal of the post offered to him at the Board of Education, was only fourteen months into his ministerial career. The Government benches were crowded with ambitious young men. Macnamara always retained an affection for the old Prime Minister: ‘one of the most large-hearted, kindly, simple and honest men I have ever met’, he recalled fourteen years later. Campbell-Bannerman, a wealthy Scot unconcerned with rank or with the ties of university and school so dear to so many early twentieth-century Englishmen, had admired and encouraged him. Asquith, in contrast, was drawn, especially through the ambition and influence of his second wife, into aristocratic circles. ‘He enjoys the grand life’, Sir George Riddell, the solicitor, director of the News of the World and Lloyd George's constant adviser between 1913 and 1922, wrote in his diary in May 1912: ‘He likes to live amongst wealthy and fashionable people.’
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Dr Macnamara 1861-1931 , pp. 255 - 277Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 1999